Well, this is unexpected. The iPhone 4G saga just got a whole lot crazier - dare I say it, a whole lot more ridiculous. Have you ever reported anything like a phone or something similarly small stolen to the police? What was their reaction? Did you ever get the device back? Did they send an army of officers to get your device back? No? Odd. They raided Jason Chen's house, and took four computers and two servers. Update: And thus our true colours reveal. "The raid that San Mateo area cops conducted last week on the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen came at the behest of a special multi-agency task force that was commissioned to work with the computer industry to tackle high-tech crimes. And Apple Inc. sits on the task force's steering committee." Update II: According to TechCrunch, the investigation has been put on hold while the DA ponders Gizmodo's shield defence. Update III: Some legal insight from a constitutional law and first amendment expert and a law professor. The gist? The DA has said no one has been charged with anything here, making this just an investigation - however, this makes the search and seizing of material worse. "If the police are literally just gathering information, with no suspect targeted yet, then a subpoena against a journalist would have probably been smarter than a search warranted that resulted in the front door of Chen's home being bashed in."

And to suggest it warrants the same tactical response as a security breach impacting national security is just as disingenuous; shame on you!

Besides, the most amazing thing about the new iPhone is OS 4, which Jobs already spilled the beans about during the iPad launch. There's an hour long video about it on the Apple website if you'd care to get in on the secrets. The only thing new we got to see on Gizmodo was the physical design, which is subject to change anyway. At the end of the day it's still just a phone.

The fact remains, Apple has pull with the government that even other big companies can't touch, and they are using it for intimidation and harassment. The actual security breach was with their own employee and whoever found the phone, why aren't their massive efforts focused there? Why harass the journalist who broke the story? Because they can. It sends a clear message to other journalists and bloggers: Don't break Apple news that isn't officially sanctioned, or you'll be greatly inconvenienced.